Indicator attachment for type-writing machines.



A. H. PARTRIDGE. INDIGATOB. ATTAGHMENT FOR TYPE WRITING MAGHINES.

APPLIOATION FILED AUG. 3, 1906. Patented Jan. V 4 BHBETS*SHEET 1.

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A. H. PARTRIDGE. INDICATOR ATTACHMENT FOB TYPE WRITING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 3, 1906.

Patented Jan; 12. 1909.

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A. H. PARTRIDGB. INDIGATOB ATTACHMENT FOR TYPE WRITING MACHINES.

v PLIMTIW FILED 6.3, 1906.

gzzu M ALWYN H. PARTRIDGE, OF DENVER, COLORADO.

INDICATOR ATTACHMENT FOR TYPE-WRITING- IMACHINES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 12, 1999.

Application filed August 3, 1906. Serial No. 329,089.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALwYN H. PARTRIDGE, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and county of Denver and State of Colorado, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Indicator Attachments for Type-Writing Machines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to attachments for typewriters, ad has reference more particularly to a device in the nature of a pointer or indicator capable of ready application to ceriain known makes of typewriting machines and serving, when the carriage of the machine is raised for inspection of the work, to indicate on the sheet being printed the point in the printing line at which the type on the type-bar will strike the sheet when the carriage has been returned to its printing position.

A leading object of the invention is to provide a device of the character specified that shall be capable of attachment to typewriters which have passed from the factory into private hands, and of a construction such that it can be readily attached without requiring any alteration or disturbing any portion of the typewriter as already constructed.

The embodiment of the invention herein selected for purposes of illustration and description is adapted for application to the well known Remington typewriter, although it is to be understood that the principle of the invention is capable of embodiment in other slightly different forms to adapt the invention to other known makes of typewriters which employ a hinged reciprocating carriage supporting the cylinder or platen, and type-bars having a single common striking point.

The constructional features, principle of operation, and advantages of the invention will be readily apparent to those skill d in the art when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, which show one practical mechanical embodiment of the invention, and in which Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view, of the upper portion of the frame of a typewriting machine, showing the platen-frame in front elevation in raised position, with ny attachment applied thereto; Fig. 2 is a cross-section on the line 2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3

is a similar cross-section but showing the platen-frame in lowered position; Fig. l is a detail perspective View, broken out, of the apron or shield; Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the indicator and its supporting and fastening means; Fig. 6 is a detail perspective view of the pointer proper Fig. 7 is a detail perspective view of the shackle; Fig. 8 is a perspective detail view of the brake: and Fig. 9 is a perspective detail View of a baseplate secured to the bridge-bar and to which the shackle is hinged.

In its main and essential features the present invention consists of a fixed supportingmember and the indicator proper, this latter, in its preferred form, comprising a pointer hinged upon a shackle, which latter is, in turn, hinged upon the supportingmember, the pointer and shackle being actuated on their rising or forward movement by suitable springs, and on their descending or backward movement by the descending movement of the hinged platen-frame.

In connection with the foregoing the invention preferably, although not indispensably, includes also a device in the nature of an apron or shield, which is attached to the platen-frame, and forms the actuating portion of the latter in relation to the indicator by providing a runway for such parts of the indicator as touch the platen-frame in its lateral movements.

For convenience of illustration I have shown my invention as applied to a No. 6 Remington typewriting machine, although it will be understood that it is equally applicable with slight changes of form and proportions of parts to certain other known makes of typewriters employing a hinged vertically movable platen-frame or carriage.

Referring, then, to the drawings, and first briefly pointing out the principal parts of the machine with which the device of the invention more or less directly cooperates, 10 may indicate the upper horizontal frame plate and 11 the platen-supporting frame of the carriage hinged at 12 to the reciprocating truck-frame member 13 of the carriage, the wheels 14 of the latter riding on the fixed track-bar 15.

16 designates the usual impression cylinder or platen, and 17 the cylinder scale supported on its hinge-rod 18.

19 indicates the cylinder feed-roll bar 27 designates the type-bar washer and 28 the type-bar set-screw, to both of which more particular reference is hereinafter made.

29 (Figs. 2 and 3) designates the ribbon,

30 the ribbon-guide, and 31 the shift-rail.

Referring now to the constructional features of the attachment to which the present invention relates, 32 designates a supporting member herein shown as taking the form of a bridge-bar located just above and transversely of the type-basket 24, its ends overlying and being adjustably secured to the hangers of the type-bars 25. This bridgebar may take a. variety of forms, but is con veniently and cheaply made from a flat metal strip warped or twisted between its ends through an angle of 90 degrees, so that its end portions lie in a horizontal plane and its central portion in a vertical plane. This construction affords a high degree of rigidity combined with lightness. The device of this invention being intended more especially for attachment to typewriters which have passed from the factory into private hands, I have devised a simple and efficient adjustable attaching means for the bridge-bar that does not require any modification of or alteration in the machine itself, and this means consists of the following. Referring to Figs. 1 and 5, 33 designates longitudinal slots in the ends of the bridge-bar, through which pass locking-screws 34 that engage nuts 35 in the form of flat strips bent to a flattened U- shape, and constituting in effect spring clamps. The shank of the screw 34 passes through a plain hole in the upper lap of the clamp and engages a registering threaded hole in the lower lap. The inner end of the lower lap of the clamp is concaved, as indicated at 36 (Fig. 5) so as to fit and partially embracethe outer rounded end of the typebar hanger 2G; and said end of the clamp also underlies the projecting edge of the washer 27 (Fig. 1). The inner end of the upper lap of the clamp rests directly upon the set-screw 28, so that by adjusting the nuts or clamps longitudinally relatively to the bridge-bar so as to engage the type-bar washers and set-screws in the manner shown and described, and then tightening up the locking-screws 34, the bridge-bar is secured rigidly in place. Thismode and means of securing the bridge-bar has two advantages. It raises the bridge to a height where it will not interfere with the type-bars, and it forms a spring nut-lock, preventing the screws from loosening through transmitted vibration.

Secured to the central intermediate por tion of the bridge-bar 32 is abaSe-plate 37 (Fig. 9), the upper edge of which furnishes bearings 38 and limiting stops 39 (Fig. 5) for a bent wire shackle 40 (Fig. 7). Hinged to the forward edge of the shackle, constituted by the inwardly turned ends 41 (Fig.

7) of the latter, is the pointer, this member conveniently and as herein shown being constituted by a single length of wire bent to form a loop-shaped body portion 42 hinged at its open end to the shackle, and having its sides at its closed end twisted together to form a pointer-tip 43. A torsion spring 44 surrounding the section of the shackle lying between the bearings 38 bears at one end 45 against the face of the base-plate 37, while its other or actuating end 46 underlies one arm of the shackle and tends to raise the latter and hold it against the stops 39. A similar but somewhat lighter torsion spring 47 surrounds the'hinge-pivots 41 of the shackle, one end 48 of said spring being anchored beneath one arm ofthe shackle, while its other or actuating end 49 underlies one of the side members of the pointer and thus tends to raise the latter'relatively to the shackle. It will be seen that by reason of this construction the tendency of spring 44 is to raise both the shackle and the pointer toward the platen-frame and cause them to follow the latter when it is raised, while the lighter spring 47 swings the pointer relatively to the shackle in a direc tion to carry the pointer tip 43 directly over the cylinder scale 17.

The foregoing constitute the principal operative parts of the device. But in order to prevent interference or entanglement of the pointer with such parts of the platenframe as it would tend to touch in the several positions and movements of the latter, such as the feed-rolls and cylinder scale in the machine illustrated, I employ also a thin sheet-metal shield or apron 50 (Fig. 4) overlying the feed-rolls 21 and constituting a run-way or guide for the pointer, holding the tip of the latter off the cylinder scale 17.

This shield may be attached in any suitable.

r convenient way, but I prefer that shown in the drawings wherein it will be seen that the shield has on its upper margin an inwardly projecting longitudinal flange 51 having slots 52 (Fig. 4) through which are passed the upper ends of the feed-roll hanger springs 22, while a spring hook 53 secured to the rear side of the shield is adapted to snap over and engage the cylinder scale hinge-rod '18. The shield isthus securely held in apo'sition to guard the feedrolls and cylinder scale from contact with the pointer, and at the same time permits the paper to be watched as its lower edge approaches the printing line.

In order to retard, for a purpose hereinafter mentioned, the forward and upward movement of the shackle when the platenframe is first raised from its normal or printing position, I also preferably employ a device that operates while in contact with the shield as a frictibn-brake upon the shackle, preventing or retarding the forward and upward s *ing of the shackle until the platen-frame shall have been slightly raised, the retarding action of said brake being greatest when the shackle is at its lowest point of swing and diminishing as the shackle rises. This device as herein shown takes the form of a bent wire tongue 54 (Fig. 8) hinged at its open end in a bearing-plate 55. this latter and the base-plate 37 being shown as both secured to the bridge-bar 32 by a common fastening screw 56. Of course, these parts might be formed integral from a single blank if desired. The free end portion of the brake-lever is contacted by the shield 50 when the platen-frame is in its lowered position (see Fig. 3), while the sides of the brake-lever engage a friction roller 57 mounted on the free end of the shackle and inclosing and protecting the spring 47.

In the operation of the device, when the platen-frame is swung downwardly from its raised position shown in Figs. 1 and 2 to its lowered position shown in Fig. 3, the pointer 42 first swings from the point where it is hinged to the shackle, and later it swings together with the shackle from the point where the latter is hinged to the base-plate. When the platen-frame is raised the pointer first swings upward from its bearing on the shackle, and later continues that motion in company with the shackle swinging from the bearing on the base-plate. The necessity for this double-hinged arrangement and these difi erent motions arises from the fact that. to avoid entanglement with the envelop holder when the platen-frame is lowered, the first motion of the free end of the pointer must be away from the end of the envelop holder, while to avoid interference with the shift-rail when the platen-frame is raised, the pointer must at first be kept away from the rail. The two movements are effected by making the shackle-actuating spring 4% stronger than the pointer-actuating spring 47, and by depressing the shackle not directly by contact of the shield but by means of the intervening lever 54 so placed that when fully depressed it acts as a brake to re ard the upward movement of the shackle and consequently the forward bodily movement of the pointer when the platenframe is in the initial stages of its upward movement. W hen the platen-frame is raised the pointer-tip 43 indicates the point on the paper at which the type print when the platen-frame has been lowered, so that after an erasure has been made the platen-frame, while raised, can be simply moved along until the pointer tip registers with the point of erasure and then lowered and the correct key then struck, thus eliminating the necessity on the part of the operator of mentally noting the point of erasure on the cylinderscale, remembering it, and subsequently adjusting the platen-frame to the corresponding indication on the adjusting scale after the platen-frame has been lowered.

Aside from the advantages already pointed out in connection with the double joint feature of the indicator, it may be mentioned that this construction permits of folding together the pointer, shackle and brake-lever substantially flat against the base plate, placing them out of the way when it is desired to raise the ribbon-guide; and when an erasure is to be made, if the pointer happens to be in the way it can be fastened down by slipping the tip of the pointer under the shift-rail, from which position it is readily detached, or is automatically released on lowering the platen-frame.

It will be evident to those skilled in the art that the device as shown and described can be considerably modified in respect to the detail construction and relative arrangement of parts and the materials of which they are composed without departing from the principle of the invention or sacrificing any of the advantages thereof. Hence, I do not limit the invention to the construction shown except to the extent indicated in specific claims.

I claim 1. An indicator attachment for typewriters having a hinged platen-frame carrying a platen, and a type-basket, comprising in combination, a support, means for a tach ing the same to the type-basket, an indicator pivotally connected to said support, a shield adapted to be secured to the platen-frame contiguous to the platen, and means tending to swing said indicator upwardly and into contact with said shield in all positions of the latter, substantially as described.

2. An indicator attachment for typewriters having a hinged platen-frame and a type-basket, comprising in combination, a support, means for mounting the same upon the type-basket, a two-part jointed indicator pivotally connected to said support, and spring means tending at all times to swing both parts of said indicator upwardly, substantially as described.

3. An indicator attachment for typewriters having a hinged platen-frame and a type-basket comprising in combination, a bridge-bar, means for deachably mounting said bridge-bar at its ends upon and across the type-basket, a two-part jointed indicator, one part whereof is pivotally connected at one end to said bridge-bar and at the opposite end is pivotally connected to the other part of said indicator, and springs operating to raise both parts of said indicator, substantially as described.

4. An indicator attachment for typewriters having a hinged platen-frame carrying a platen and teed-rolls, and a typebasket comprising in combination a bridgeb'ar, means for detachably mounting the latter at its ends upon the type-basket, a shield adapted to be detachably secured to the platen-frame, contiguous to the platen and to cover the feed-rolls, an indicator pivotally connected to said bridge-bar, and means tending to impel said indicator upwardly and into contact withsaid shield in all positions of the latter, substantially as described. 7

5. An indicator attachment for typewriters having a hinged platen-frame carrying a platen and a type-basket, comprising in combination, a bridge-bar, means for ad justably and detachably mounting the latter at its ends over'and upon the type-basket, a shackle pivotally connected to said bridge bar, a pointer pivotally connected to said shackle, a spring tending to turn said shackle relatively to the bridge-bar, and a spring tending to turn said pointer relatively to the shackle, said springs operating jointly to impel said shackle and pointer upwardly and toward said pla en in all positionsrof the latter, substantially as described.

6. An indicator attachment for typewriters having a hinged platen-frame carrying a platen, and a typebasket, comprising in combination a bridge-bar, means for adjustably and detachably mounting the latter at its ends upon the type-basket, a shackle having a pivotal connection to said bridgebar, a pointer having a pivotal connection to said shackle, a torsion spring tending to turn said shackle relatively to the bridgebar. and a lighter or weaker torsion spring tending to turn said pointer relatively to the shackle, said springs operating jointly to impel said shackle and poin er upwardly and toward said pla en in all positions of the latter, substantially as described.

7. An indicator attachment for typewriters having a hinged platen-frame carrying a platen and feed-rolls, and a typebasket, comprising in combination, a bridgebar, means for adjustably and detachably mounting the latter at its ends over and upon the type-basket, a shackle pivotally '65Jtorsion springtending toturn said shackle connected to said bridge-bar, a pointer pivotrelatively to the bridge-bar, and a lighter or weaker torsion spring tending to turn said pointer relatively to said shackle, said springs operating jointly to impel said shackle and pointer toward said shield when the platen-frame is raised, and also to resist with unequal degrees of force the downward pressure of said shield when the platenframe is depressed, substantially as described. i

8. An indicator attachment for typewriters having a hinged platen-frame and a type-basket, comprising in combination,

bridge-bar, means for adjustably and detachably mounting the latter at its ends over and upon the type-basket, a base-plate fixedly secured to said bridge-bar and forming a vertical extension thereof, a shackle pivotally connected to said base-plate, a pointer pivotally connected to said shackle,

a spring tending to turn saidshackleup-V wardly relatively to said base-plate, and a spring tending to turn said. pointer upwardly relatively to said shackle, substantially as described.

9. An indicator attachmentfor typewriters having a hinged platen'frame and a type-basket, comprising, in combination, a bridgebar, means for adjustably and detachably mounting the latter at its ends over the type-basket, a base-plate secured to said bridge-bar, a bent wire shackle pivotally connected to said base-plate, a bent wire pointer pivotally connected to said shackle, a torsion spring tending'to turn said shackle upwardly relatively to said base-platmand a lighter or weaker torsion spring tending to turn said pointer upwardly relatively to said shackle, substantially as described.

10. An indicator attachment for typewriters having a hinged platen-frame carrying a platen and feed-rolls, and a typebasket, comprising in combination, a bridgebar, means for adjustably and detachably mounting the latter .at its ends over the type-basket, a base-plate secured to said bridge-bar, a bent wire shackle pivotally connected to saidrbase-plate, a bentwire pointer pivotally connected to said shackle, a shield-runway adapted to be detachably secured to the platen-frame below the platen and to cover the platen feed rolls, and torsion springs tending to turn said shackle and pointer upwardly toward the platentrame and to maintain said pointer in engagement with the shield-runway when the platen-frame is raised, substantially as described.

11. An indicator attachment for typewriters having a hinged platen-frame carrying a platen and feed rolls, and a typebasket, comprising in combination, a bridgebar, means 'for adj ustably' and detachably mounting thelatter at its ends over the type basket, a base-plate secured to said bridgebar, a bent wire shackle pivotally connected to said base-plate, a bent wire pointer pivotally connected to said shackle, a brake pivotally connected to said base-plate and bearing on said shackle to retard the initial upward movement of the latter when the platenframe is raised, a shield-runway adapted to be detachably secured to the platen-frame below the platen and to cover the platen feed-rolls, and torsion springs tending to turn said shackle and pointer upwardly toward the platen-frame and-to maintain said pointer in engagement with the shield-runway when the platen-frame is raised, substantially as described.

12. In a device for the purpose described, the combination with type-bar hangers of a typewriter, of a bridge-bar, an indicator pivotally connected thereto, and clamps carried by the ends of said bridge-bar and adapted to engage said type-bar hangers, substantially as described.

13. In a device for the purpose described, the combination with a bridge-bar and an indicator pivotally connected thereto, of longitudinally adjustable clamps on the ends of said bridge-bar, said clamps each comprising an elastic metal strip of a flattened U-shape adapted to engage at its open end a type-bar hanger and its fastening devices, and a locking screw passed through the end of the bridge-bar and the upper lap of the clamp and threaded into the lower lap of the latter, substantially as described.

ALlVYN H. PARTRIDGE.

Witnesses:

E. H. PIERCE, MARY E. PARTRIDGE. 

